(540b) Differential Analysis Of Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes Cellular Uptake Mechanism

Biomedical applications of Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are currently being constrained by many uncertainties regarding the cellular mechanisms associated with their uptake and delivery as well as their fate inside the biological systems. In this research, a new approach is used to quantify the cellular mechanisms of a wide library of surface modified CNTs incubated with human lung epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) in real time. This non-invasive technique relies on an electrical cell impedance sensing system (ECIS) used as a proxy to measure morphological changes and cellular interactions upon exposure to different concentrations and functionalities of CNTs. Such measurements are correlated to the cellular behavior under the influence of different parameters like endocytotic inhibitors or electroporation and  further complemented by classical microscopic, apoptotic and flow cytometry assays to derive cellular structure-function relationships. Our real time results provide an insight to the underlying cellular mechanisms responsible for the uptake and delivery of CNTs to the biological systems and promises to extend our understanding of such cellular-based interfaces to advance the biomedical applications of CNTs.